Carmelo Anthony spoke to the media for 20 minutes on Friday afternoon and was able to sound like an innocent bystander in his own trade drama.

“I don’t know/out of my control,” was his mantra as he said nothing was in place. No meetings are set with Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov or Knicks owner James Dolan. He has not gotten a call about or discussed any “legitmate” offers. He said if he is presented with one he would have to “think about” what to do.

But he did say he hopes that by the time he leaves Los Angeles after All-Star weekend.

“Before I leave (Los Angeles) I would love to have something on the table,” Anthony said. “I would love to have a legit offer on the table where we can sit down and they can say to me ‘this is what we have’ and we can figure it out….

“I hope it’s not at the 11th hour trade deadline. I do need my rest. I need to get some sleep. I don’t need that much stress on me.”

When asked about the actual options he tried to sound like a guy out of the loop, not at the center of the Melodrama that bears is name. As if his stand on signing an extension — with Denver or the Nets or the Knicks — is not what will decide how this all ends.

“The Nuggets haven’t called me and said ‘we are close to a deal with New Jersey’ or anything like that,” Anthony said.

He did say the Nuggets had come to him before and said there was a deal on the table last month, right before Prokhorov got tired of being jerked around and pulled the Nets out of the talks.

He continued to say Denver is an option, even though he has had an extension from them sitting on the table since this summer he has not signed it. At this point, not sure Denver is on the hook, biting on that bait.

“The only thing I can control is signing that extension,” Anthony said. “There’s a lot of things I think about though, like what the future of the Denver Nuggets really is, what they are trying to do with the team, what the goal is in a couple years.”